Maya Angelou, poet,
was among the first African-American women to hit the bestsellers lists
with her I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, held the Great Hall audience
spellbound with stories of her own childhood. She ranged from story to
poem to song and back again, and her theme was love and the universality
of all lives. "The honorary duty of a human being is to love," Angelou
said. She spoke
of her early love for
William Shakespeare's works, and offered her audience excerpts from the
poems of several African-Americans, including James Weldon Johnson and
Paul Lawrence Dunbar. But always, she came back to love - and humanity.
"I am human," Angelou said, quoting from her own work, "and nothing human
can be alien to me."
 I
still rise |
| Men |
| Phenomenal
Women |
| Rememberance |
| A
Conceit |
| Touched
by an angel |
| More
to come |
Created
by TracyG~1998, 1999